Personal things

A very small collection of personal things. It now contains two
items, but I think the subjects are important enough to warrant it.

Our family has a web page at just42.net for those interested.

Much has been written about the content of various parenting
courses distributed by Growing Families International (GFI).
This article outlines my views on
the points raised by various authors.

Linux things

This is a collection of linux documents and other miscellaneous things
which I have collected or written. At this stage it's not much of a
collection (more like an arrangement of letters which happen to spell out
meaningful english sentences), but it's a start. The most recently added
things are at the top.

1 Feb 2009:
A new version of batchrec (v1.2.1)
has been released. This fixes a number of issues which showed up when
using batchrec to record continuously for hours on end. Compilation
warnings seen on newer gcc versions have also been tidied up.

29 May 2008:
Version 1.3.0 of set_rlimits
has been released. This integrates a Makefile patch by Lucas C. Villa
Real and adds an option to specify non-standard library locations
(which must be secured directories) to the called executable.

17 November 2006:
Jack_play 0.1 is a small command line
tool allowing one to play any file supported by libsndfile to arbitary
JACK ports. It's based heavily on jack_capture. While there remains
much to be done but it's still usable in its current state.

7 June 2006:
Audiosync 0.4 is a quick and
dirty program to resynchronise audio tracks recorded on separate
machines which were not locked to wordclock. Full operation is
detailed in the enclosed README file, manpage and the source itself.
This is the first public release of audiosync. It is released under
the GNU GPL.

11 January 2006:
Set_rlimits 1.2.0 is a new
version of what was previously called set_rtlimits. It is a small
program written to give unpriviledged users access to realtime
scheduling via the new rlimits added to kernel 2.6.12. The new name
reflects the fact that the program can control resource limits
rather than just those related to realtime priorities. This
new version adds a more flexible configuration file format, easier
command line use and the ability to control the memlock resource
limit. Read the enclosed README file and manpage for full
details.

7 June 2005:
Set_rtlimits 1.1.0 is a small
program written to give unpriviledged users access to realtime
scheduling via the new rlimits added to kernel 2.6.12. The initial
version 1.0.0 is available for
completeness. Permission to use elevated realtime resource limits
is granted on a user/group basis for each desired program in a central
configuration file. Read the enclosed README file and manpage for full
details.

8 December 2003:
Batchrec 1.2.0 is the latest version
of a small text-mode sound recording utility I wrote. It features a
level meter (in dB), and automatic track splitting based on a
user-defined amount of silence (where the level of `silence' is also
user-defined). This version adds raw output of audio data to stdout
allowing (for example) realtime conversion to formats other than the
internally supported WAV format. I often have the need to simply
sample something before using ecasound/slab/ardour/etc for further
processing, and I find batchrec more suited to this than most other
tools out there. The track splitting is especially useful, since it
allows automatic unattended sampling of a number of tracks. It's
released under the GPL. Versions
1.0.0 and 1.1.0 are still
available if anyone wants them.

6 August 2003:
Some time ago I posted a number of requests on the Linux kernel
mailing list and the NFS list regarding some oopses I was seeing on a
2.4.18 fileserver at work. The problem was triggered when a client
used NLM locking (as Digital Unix 4 and several others do), and
eventually I tracked down an answer in the form of a patch from Trond.
This patch was not easy to find and since that time others have
emailed me asking whether the problem was resolved. The short answer
is "yes, it has been resolved", and the magic patch can be found
here. The problem was fixed
in 2.4.19.

5 February 2003:
Trackedit 0.1 is another small
text-mode audio program I wrote. It is designed to allow very large
audio files to be skimmed through and for sections to be selected and
saved off into separate files. Full usage details are included in the
README file and the online help. The interface is currently textmode
only, but the program may grow an (optional) GUI at some stage when/if
I have time. Like batchrec, it's released under the GPL.

5 February 2003:
Batchrec 1.1.0 is the latest version
of a small text-mode sound recording utility I wrote. It features a
level meter (in dB), and automatic track splitting based on a
user-defined amount of silence (where the level of `silence' is also
user-defined). I often have the need to simply sample something
before using ecasound/slab/ ardour/etc for further processing, and I
find batchrec more suited to this than most other tools out there.
The track splitting is especially useful, since it allows automatic
unattended sampling of a number of tracks. It's released under the
GPL.Version 1.0.0 is still available if
anyone wants it - but 1.1.0 is better. :)

8 March 2002: I have produced
an updated tclx/tix patch
giving tix access to tclx functions. This is a diff patch against tix
8.1.3 and was tested with tcl/tk 8.3.4 and tclx 8.3. This patch also
includes a small change to config/acinclude.m4 which ensures compiler
variables are correctly set up in `configure' scripts; without it some
tests (noteably the `unsigned char' test) are incorrectly failed.
(Note that in this patch, only the unix/tkX8.3/configure file has this
fix applied.)

The `ping' program included in many recent distributions (including
Slackware 8.0) comes from the
netkit-base-0.17 release. This
version has a problem which causes a false error message to be
displayed if the ping time is more than the sending interval - usually
one second. This small patch fixes the
problem; to apply, change into the netkit-base-0.17 directory and do
`patch -p1 < /netkit-0.17.diff'. (Note: the netkit maintainer
is aware of this problem and it has been fixed in the current
development tree as of 6 November 2001.)

NSS1 compatibility module package for
Slackware 7.x. This is needed for binaries statically linked against
glibc 2.0.x which use NSS services, since the NSS modules are not
automatically included in the binary during the static linking
process. The package contains the "compat", "db", "dns", "files" and
"nis" NSS modules from Slackware 4.0. Note that for many situations
symlinking libnss_*_.so.1 to the glibc 2.1.x equivalents will work;
however, there appear to be some subtle problems with this which show
up only for certain query values, making the "proper" modules
necessary.

ephem 4.29. This version is mainly a code
cleanup from
v4.28
to increase its stability under modern operating systems such as Linux.
It has not, however, been tested on systems other than Linux (2.2.13
kernel, glibc 2.1, egcs 1.1.2) so any feedback would be appreciated.

A patch against wavplay 1.3
which fixes a number of glitches/bugs and adds a time display.

Here is another xwave2 patch,
this time against the last official release
I am aware of. This is a bugfix patch - no new features are added,
but with it the program actually compiles. There are still minor
problems with the program but it is quite useable now.

I have written a patch against
xwave2 (an audio wave editor) which
fixes a number of bugs and adds the loop button functionality
originally written for xwave 0.6.

This file contains extensions to Tix version 4.1.0 which give
applications using the Tix extensions to Tcl/Tk 8.0 access to TclX
commands (unix only). It is a tar file which should be extracted in the
Tix base directory. A directory unix/tkX8.0/ will be created - to
build Tix with TclX extensions (tixwishx) go to this directory rather
than the tk8.0 directory. Otherwise follow the standard documentation.
This was written since I could find nothing on the web indicating how
to create tixwishx (even though there were about 4 references to people
using it). If there is an "official" way to do this I would love to
know.

I have an
XFree86 configuration file for a Gateway Solo 2100 laptop computer
here. It is for XFree 3.1.2; However, I suspect that the standard
XF86Setup program now works correctly for this laptop and it should be
used in preference to this file.

ALS-007 Linux and programming notes are a collection of notes
I wrote about soundcards based on the Avance Logic ALS-007 chip while
I was writing a kernel driver for them. Links to the patch against
OSS/Free 3.8s6 (and 3.8s9) are provided in this document.

An ALS-007 quick guide
which concisely describes how to set up an ALS-007 based soundcard
under Linux. This is more or less an HTML-ised version of the
Linux/Documentation/Sound/ALS007 file in the kernel source distribution
(>=2.1.105) and is provided for those who don't want to plough through
the full set of programming notes.

Hardware/electronics things

Here you'll find a few pieces of computer hardware documentation and
other electronic-related information which I have written.
The newest things are at the top.

It seems that the Prime3b chip is still used on some `current' boards:
Tom Perkins informed me of
the existance of the `DTC Ultima Pro' and its
usermanual. The original
site for the manual is
here.

Documentation on another multi-IO card has come my way. This time,
Ian Hamilton has provided some information on the
AI-1078E Super (Enhanced) IO card. This card
is based on a Goldstar Prime 2C chip.

Thanks to Andrew Su, I now have documentation on a card based on the
LGS Prime 3B Mark II chip. As for the
Prime 3B chip dealt with below, there appears to be practically no
documentation on the internet regarding these cards.

A miscellaneous collection of minidisc-related
information, mainly dealing with servicing and hardware. It's
slanted towards the Sony MDS-S30 model since that's what I have, but
owners of other similar models may find it useful as well.

Documentation on a multiIO card made by Kentech Computer (HK) based on
the LGS Prime 3B chip. There seems to be
little else on the net in the way of documentation of this chip, so
hopefully this page will remedy the situation slightly.

Links to interesting places

(As before, the most recently added links are towards the top.
Maybe.)

In the spirit of the "ADG Antics and mayhem page" (see below) comes
the Weird
Stuff page. Of particular note is the
Strawberry
PopTart Blowtorches which gives an excellent example
of a proper physics practical and how it should be
written up.

As a starting point for Muppet related info on and in the web, try
Bill
Sherman's Muppets Home Page. It's an unofficial collection of
Muppet-related madness and info, gathered with the help of the
alt.tv.muppets newsgroup.

If you've ever wondered what workers at SGI get up to in their spare
time, take a look at
ADG Antics and mayhem page.
At the bottom of the page are further links to interesting activities
which include blowing up a
mac. Share and enjoy!

Random ravings by the author

Long-time visitors to this page will note that the general layout hasn't
changed all that much, which is fairly consistant with the way things have
gone since 1996. However, I have finally removed the cheesy HTML stuff
which has lived on here since 1996, but that's about it. Items continue to
be added to the list of implemented things, but they are certainly not
announced with a fanfair of superfluous graphical rubbish. For those who
want dramatic layout changes, you've come to the wrong place - this page is
more for information rather than for showing off the latest and greatest in
HTML effects. I don't have time to do all that. Get used to it
- life goes on :).

This page was last updated on 11 June 2013.

My name is Jonathan Woithe and you can send me an email if you like.
The first part is jwoithe, and the domain is just42.net. Put them together
with an "at" symbol and you'll reach me. Alternatively, click here to send to my older
address which attracts a mountain of spam due to its age.